Gateway FX 6800-01e BIOS Update from Gateway Unsupported

[coastie65]

Sounds like you were able to find the defective memory stick,
- Congrads on finding it.

Any time you purchase memory, you always run the risk of getting one or more defective sticks. - Hopefully you'll be able to return the it.

When I ordered my memory, it came with free shipping, but I paid an extra $10.00 for 2nd day FedEx which was worth it.

At the rate memory prices are dropping and how fast technology is coming out, I expect that we'll probably see Tri-Channel kits composed of 4GB sticks soon. When that happens, I won't hesitate to purchase a full 24GB kit for my system

The FX 6800 Core i7 series should be able to handle a Full 24GB cause the design structure is 4GB per slot.

I really don't see how who ever was in charge of writing up the specifications came up with 16GB as those are the specs for the Intel X58 motherboard which only has 4 slots. It's like they never had access to the manual either.

Good Luck with your system

Actually the X58 MOBO has 6 Dimm slots due to it being Tri Channel, The P55 Nobo has 4 DIMM Slots as it is Dual Channel.

 

[coastie65]

i got the gateway fx6800 from best buy a few days ago and went to their website and downloaded all the latest bios updates. the question i have is i replaced the original power supply to a 700 watt and changed the original 3gb memory with 12 gb ddr 1600mhz memory.

the bios sees 12gb but says its running at 1033mhz, windows vista also shows that its running at that speed.

is there somthing i am supposed to do in the bios to make the motherboard run the memory at the right speed, or at least a little faster?

if anyone has any good ideas on how to correct this problem please let me know

thx

Nope. I have 6 GB of Crucial Ballistix 1600Mhz and running at 1066 Mhz. There is nothing you can do as it has been throttled back. If you can find a working "Unlocked" BiOS, then you could do some OCing. This was a decision by Intel in order to keep the MOBO Manufactures from having to recertify the MOBO ( For a fee ). This is the same reason it is not SLI capable. Nividia charges the manufacturers a fee to have the boards certified for SLI ( adds an update to the BiOS ).

 

[coastie65]

Sorry but just for your information and all others out there, they are multiple setups from the factory with FX6800-01e. Me and a friend did a load of research on it and also checking like my system out. I have Ci7 FX6800-01e 920 running at 2.67GHz and with stock RAM of 3 GBs... However, unlike the one on tigerdirect.com ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86Rk-eBqe0I ) They had the black ATI HD4850 card with 1GB of RAM yet they didn't read the labels on the card or the Catalyst Control center saying that it has 1024 MBs of discrete GDDR3. Its in the top slot, which if you read the motherboard is slot two on mine. and it has Wireless Antenna leads.

Now the one you all may have is the ATI HD4850 red card like on this one ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vrZxarxsKw ), if so then you definitely only have 512 MBs of GDDR3 and you are in my systems slot 2 PCIe x16 slot.

But if your system is like my system has the black card in the bottom slot and no antenna leads. You just may have the turbo boost enabled on the motherboard by default and probably shouldn't install the update just cause it causes problems on systems like mine when it was installed.

The only speed improvements you can get is 266 MHz max, and that is limited if you don't have your fans on fast, or you didn't install a case fan in the front of the case like I did.

Most all devices out there like CPU-Z and others, may or may not detect the turbo boost, I haven't seen any Ci7 system as of yet from any OEM show that it has any noticable turbo mode, the only way you can find out is by playing single or dual threaded things, and then the system jumps from core to core with instructions that you may not see it.


A SIDE NOTE....
In my post before this one I forgot to mention that the PC3-12800 and higher RAM for the system creates a serious hotspot and also if your graphics card is in the top slot it creates a even higher hot spot on the motherboards north bridge. I moved my card back to the primary card slot as it is labeled on the board PCIEx16A slot which is my bottom slot and put a case fan in to help cool the hot spot that the RAM created. and also helps the system stay more stable at speed that I believe my systems turbo mode has.

I got the one from TigerDirect and it had that fat Black card in there. Those antenna leads had me scratching my head. Couldn't figure out what the heck they were. It was a refurb and didn't start out of the box. I thought the PSU had died so got a spare Antec Basiq 500w PSU out of the closet to check it with. As it turned out, the 24 pin ATX connector was barely plugged in and when I jiggled some wires while checking things out, I lost the standby light on the MOBO. Plugged the thing in the way it was supposed to be and all was good. Did swap out the PSU for a Corsair TX850w ( little over kill ). Fortunately, I still Have My eMachines with the Pentium D 945 ( 3.4 Ghz ) and 9800 GT card, as Bethesda stuff ( Oblivion, Fallout 3 ) doesn't play well with Intel Quad cores.


As far as the memory issues go. It is locked at 1066 MHz, no matter what the clock speed of the memory you install. This was done by Intel to prevent the manufactures from having to recertify the motherboard for the faster speeds. There is an option and that is to change out the mother board to one that has an unlocked BiOS and then you can achieve it by OCing. Same story with SLI on these things. Nividia requires that the MOBO be certified for SLI and the manufacturer has to pay a fee to Nvidia for that.

 

[coastie65]

Did some checking and found out that the 750 Gb Hdd that came in mine was a Seagate Barracuda. I guess that was the norm though. Just got a 1 TB WD Caviar Black to put in here.

 

[Guest]

Actually the X58 MOBO has 6 Dimm slots due to it being Tri Channel, The P55 Nobo has 4 DIMM Slots as it is Dual Channel.

The Intel X58 I had referred to in the reply you had quoted has three tri-channel memory slots and one shared memory slot.

Notice this was an Intel motherboard I was referring to, not a Gateway (Acer) motherboard.

BTW....

This thread has a wealth of information on the FX6800 series for those who have the time to read through this thread. I've been a major contributor to in helping others in dealing with problems with this system.

 

[coastie65]

The Intel X58 I had referred to in the reply you had quoted has three tri-channel memory slots and one shared memory slot.

Notice this was an Intel motherboard I was referring to, not a Gateway (Acer) motherboard.

BTW....

This thread has a wealth of information on the FX6800 series for those who have the time to read through this thread. I've been a major contributor to in helping others in dealing with problems with this system.

Yeah, I have been reading through it. From what I have seen, My post was a bit premature as it looks like the configuration was all over the boards for these things ( was unaware of that ). I got mine On Dec. 3rd ( refurb ), but it was manufactured in Jan. '09, so I am guessing it was one of the later ones. I just got a WD 1 TB Caviar Black Hdd from NewEgg, and you di answer one of my questions as to whether or not it could be hot swapped. Going to clone the Seagate and use it for back up as from the reviews, I don't have a lot of faith in Seagate although this one seems to be doing fine. That Intel MOBO has one strange memory configuration. I am a Mod over at PCWorld.com and haven't heard of anything like that. This whole site is a wealth of information. Although I just joined, I have consulted this site in the past when researching a problem as has other members. I wasn't disputing your post by any means, just adding what I knew, which apparantly wasn't much.

 

[Guest]

No problem, as it's very understandable

I just recently ungraded my system somewhat and I've got a few more upgrades in mind over the next month or two.

Just installed an HIS H577QT1GD Radeon HD 5770 IceQ 5 Turbo whicn I purchased from ZipZoomFly.com

An Ultra X4 1050-Watt Modular Power Supply from TigerDirect.com

And a BlueRay burner along with some software such as PowerDVD 10 Ultra, Snagit! 10.0 and PaintShop Pro X3

-------

With the BlueRay you need to Open PowerDVD or what ever program you are using for BlueRay playback, go into the options and disable the OSD. This is for the little popup that occurs when you first insert a BlueRay disk.

This should help fix a BSOD that happens under Windows 7 when playing BlueRay.

With the new power supply, I'm now using an 8-pin connector instead of the 4-pin connector for the motherboard socket behind the processor. Now it seems like the system is a bit more responsive. Turns out my old PSU was only 450 Watts.

My next step will be a new case, then liquid cooling.

For the Liquid cooling stuff, I'll probably get everything from this place as they seem to have a large assortment of stock, Performance-PCs.com

I've just gotta get the summer bills out of the way first before I can safely spend more on my system or I'll be dead meat if I'm not careful with the bills.

 

[coastie65]

No problem, as it's very understandable

I just recently ungraded my system somewhat and I've got a few more upgrades in mind over the next month or two.

Just installed an HIS H577QT1GD Radeon HD 5770 IceQ 5 Turbo whicn I purchased from ZipZoomFly.com

An Ultra X4 1050-Watt Modular Power Supply from TigerDirect.com

And a BlueRay burner along with some software such as PowerDVD 10 Ultra, Snagit! 10.0 and PaintShop Pro X3

-------

With the BlueRay you need to Open PowerDVD or what ever program you are using for BlueRay playback, go into the options and disable the OSD. This is for the little popup that occurs when you first insert a BlueRay disk.

This should help fix a BSOD that happens under Windows 7 when playing BlueRay.

With the new power supply, I'm now using an 8-pin connector instead of the 4-pin connector for the motherboard socket behind the processor. Now it seems like the system is a bit more responsive. Turns out my old PSU was only 450 Watts.

My next step will be a new case, then liquid cooling.

For the Liquid cooling stuff, I'll probably get everything from this place as they seem to have a large assortment of stock, Performance-PCs.com

I've just gotta get the summer bills out of the way first before I can safely spend more on my system or I'll be dead meat if I'm not careful with the bills.

When I put the Corsair TX850w PSU in here, the guys over at PCWorld said"there he goes again with PSU overkill" :lol: I just came back with I wanted a little headroom in there. Yeah, I went from the original 4 pin cpu connector to the 8 pin connector as well.

Nice card you put in there. Been thinking of going to the 5770 myself. Good info on the BluRay. I haven't given much thought to adding one yet. Just got my WD Caviar Black 1TB Hdd from NewEgg yesterday. Haven't put in in yet, but want to clone the Seagate to it while it is still working. From what I 've seen on the Seagate, I don't feel real secure with that thing. I did put the 6 Gb of Crucial Ballistix 1600Mhz in here, but it was a waste I guess as the thing is throttled to 1066Mhz ( yeah, I saw the post with the hacked BiOS, but like you, I'll pass, and I'm the one who gives members at PCW the shivers when I post about my adventures in BiOS land 😀 ).


Yeah, I know about the bills. Being a Disabled Vet on a limited fixed income, I have to watch the pennies as well. When I got the thing from TiderDirect on this refurb for $650, I thought about it for about an hour before ordering, and realizing that I couldn't build one with these specs for that price. The First on went back to Revonate ( no drawers and stalled at the Gateway splash screen on boot ). Had no problem from those folks what so ever. I shipped it back just before Thanksgiving, so I figured the turn around wouldn't be all that fast. I got this one on the 3rd of Dec. Had all the stickers and the protective film on the shiney stuff. Didn't start although the Standby light was on on the MOBO. I popped the cover and had a look around and moved some wires from the PSU in the process. Plugged the Power Cord back into the PSU and no Standby light. Figured a bad PSU so git an Antec Basiq 500w out of the closet. Swithed the CPU connecto and was going to switch the 24 pin ATX connector and the thing practically fell into my hand as it hadn't been plugged in good. I replugged it ad the swithed the CPU connector back to the onboard PSU, hit the button, and it was off to the races. So far so good. With all your upgrades when do yu move to the Core i7 980x ? :lol:

 

[Guest]

Not sure if or when I'll be able to get a better processor.

But when the time comes, I do have some friends at Staple's who from what I understand, get massive discounts from Intel each year.

One thing I am looking to get when I get the chance though is the Asus Rampage III Extreme - Current low price is at NewEgg.

The ABS Canyon 695 would fit the bill just right for this motherboard and whether you do air cooling or liquid cooling, you can't go wrong.

 

[coastie65]

Not sure if or when I'll be able to get a better processor.

But when the time comes, I do have some friends at Staple's who from what I understand, get massive discounts from Intel each year.

One thing I am looking to get when I get the chance though is the Asus Rampage III Extreme - Current low price is at NewEgg.

The ABS Canyon 695 would fit the bill just right for this motherboard and whether you do air cooling or liquid cooling, you can't go wrong.

I was looking at a CPU liquid cooling solution by Corsair, I think. Looked pretty good, but the CPU temps are pretty stable even when gaming. Just installed a WD Caviar Black 1TB Hdd and it took forever to format that thing. Just finished. That Back up button next to the on/off switch, what the heck does it back up to? Never have figured that out. I was just being funny about the processor seeing as how that thing is $1000. I had thought about bumping up to a 960, but just thought about it. That ASUS should give you the advantage of OCing and you can taske advantage of the faster speeds. I've heard you can go to 3.8 Ghz on the 920 processor safely, without having to change the cooling solution. Nicew to have friends with discounts.

 

[Guest]

The Corsair is Ok for beginners I guess, but you could do a lot better.

A better beginners setup would be the H20-220 Ultima XT and while you're at it, from the other site I listed yesturday, add in a North Bridge cooler and if you want, a memory cooler.

The North Bridge in this system does run hot.

Gotta head downtown in 15 minutes to pickup a new cane and to do some other stuff..

 

[coastie65]

Yeah, I've heard about the Northbridge running hot. Some have taken it off smart fan and run the fans full out. Those Corsairs have some pretty good caps in there and hold up well. I'm no noobie, I've been around these things for awhile. : ) There are a number of good PSU's out there. I just happen to prefer Corsair. Being a disabled Vet, the price works for me as well. All I have in here at the moment is CoreTemp, but need to find somr additional monitoring. SpeedFan doesn't seem to work. Sensorsview Pro, picks up the sensors, but only gives the reading from the CPU. Well got to change out the UPS as the one on here is busted.

 

[Guest]

Try HWMonitor 1.16 64-Bit

From the same company as CPU-Z

Under Temperatures, TMPIN0 will be your North Bridge.

The Corsair H50 Liquid Cooling solution while it may be a good choice for beginners, it is very limited cause it is a closed loop (sealed) system, cooling only the processor and has a single height exhaust radiator. This leaves room for nothing else to be added to the cooling loop and a larger radiator would allow for more additional cooling.

 

[coastie65]

Try HWMonitor 1.16 64-Bit

From the same company as CPU-Z

Under Temperatures, TMPIN0 will be your North Bridge.

The Corsair H50 Liquid Cooling solution while it may be a good choice for beginners, it is very limited cause it is a closed loop (sealed) system, cooling only the processor and has a single height exhaust radiator. This leaves room for nothing else to be added to the cooling loop and a larger radiator would allow for more additional cooling.

Yeah, I am a noobie when it comes to that stuff. That thing was closed and strictly CPU. You start cooling one component at a time and you are going to have a full box in short order. I have really looked at liquid cooling all that much as yet. That radiator looked to be enough for the CPU, although the temps on mine seem to remain fairly stable from gaming to idle or vice versa. I have CPU-Z installed, but I guess I missed that. Thanks for info on the temp thing. I'm actually pretty darned happy with the way this "Refurb" has run so far. The hard drive went without a hitch in the "Toaster". I know what the CPU and GPU temp varibles are, but don't have a clue about the Northbridge. Guess I'll google it, as we say over at PCW "Google is your friend".

EDIT: Downloaded that app. That is a good one. Thanks!!! Northbridge is running at 90C.

 

[Guest]

Look at the Fahrenheit temps, I prefer to keep them as low as possible. Preferably under 80°F for most everything, but it takes liquid cooling to do this. So I'm gonna have my work cut out for me when I do finally get to doing the Liquid cooling. 😀

The best way to look at things is this.....

The cooler you can keep everything, the better your system will run.

You can do either a single loop or a dual-loop system which would actually use two sets of pumps and exhaust radiators. It all depends on how extreme you decide to get with cooling your system.

-

I do have a little something I could use with an insulated Liquid CPU cooler.

A Peltier Cooler which I've had for a while now, but have never really used yet.
I could freeze the hell out of my processor with it, but I'd need to use Liquid Cooling
and I'd have to make sure it was insulated to prevent moisture build up from condensation.

 

[coastie65]

Look at the Fahrenheit temps, I prefer to keep them as low as possible. Preferably under 80°F for most everything, but it takes liquid cooling to do this. So I'm gonna have my work cut out for me when I do finally get to doing the Liquid cooling. 😀

The best way to look at things is this.....

The cooler you can keep everything, the better your system will run.

You can do either a single loop or a dual-loop system which would actually use two sets of pumps and exhaust radiators. It all depends on how extreme you decide to get with cooling your system.

-

I do have a little something I could use with an insulated Liquid CPU cooler.

A Peltier Cooler which I've had for a while now, but have never really used yet.
I could freeze the hell out of my processor with it, but I'd need to use Liquid Cooling
and I'd have to make sure it was insulated to prevent moisture build up from condensation.

I agree with keeping things as cool as possible. I'll be looking into cooling solutions for sure,actually already have been to some degree. We had amember over at PCW that got a 10 Gal Aquarium from Walmart with top. Built one and put it in the aqurium rather than case. He started it up and proceede to gradually added mineral oil until the aquarium was full with about 10 gals of the stuff. It actually ran fine, but he did try some OCing and for the most part it did fine, but did unstable at some point, so he cut back. Anyway it ran until somebody knocked the table it was sitting on over. That created a whole set of problems, cleaning up the mess. :lol: I did see one on you tube from the UK in which they used Liquid Nitrogen to cool a processor ( they had super OCed the thing ). It ran long enough to get the benchmarks. I have visited this site in the past, primarily researching some information in dealing with a problem submitted by a member at PCW. There is a lot of good technical stuff here, and I am always learning something. If I find what I'm looking for, I'll link them to the post. If I don't know the answer, I'll find it and link them to it. At least they did put some pretty decent fans in this FX6800-01e, but as far as cooling goes there is definitely some room for improvement. I have seen many complaints about the Northbridge and that seems to be the weak point for the most part. Also yesterday, after I put that WD in the "Toaster" I was formatting it and opened the slide down door and checked it. It seemd to be rather warm, so I left the door open and it cooled down while it was still formatting. Maybe I'll leave that thing open when using that drive.

 

[Guest]

I use server grade fans in my system and even though I recommend leaving the hot swap bay door open, I recently removed the panel with the door assembly on it, exposing the front fan allowing more air flow.

One thing I also did which allows even more air flow is to cut out the air flow grids where the front and the rear fans go, then I covered the resulting holes using the circular wire fan covers so as to get even more air flow.

Both the front and rear fans are plugged directly into the power supply which results in even more rpm's than the BIOS allows them.

Although with the Ultra X4 power supply, I had to remove the cowl from the CPU Cooler to allow more in flow from the side vent.

The FX6800 series might have been a tech support night mare from the get go, but another way to look at it is like it's an IT Home Training course and then there are people like me for whom it's just a minor annoyance which is not much of a challenge to say the least.

 

[coastie65]

I use server grade fans in my system and even though I recommend leaving the hot swap bay door open, I recently removed the panel with the door assembly on it, exposing the front fan allowing more air flow.

One thing I also did which allows even more air flow is to cut out the air flow grids where the front and the rear fans go, then I covered the resulting holes using the circular wire fan covers so as to get even more air flow.

Both the front and rear fans are plugged directly into the power supply which results in even more rpm's than the BIOS allows them.

Although with the Ultra X4 power supply, I had to remove the cowl from the CPU Cooler to allow more in flow from the side vent.

The FX6800 series might have been a tech support night mare from the get go, but another way to look at it is like it's an IT Home Training course and then there are people like me for whom it's just a minor annoyance which is not much of a challenge to say the least.

You just brought up an interest point. That Corsair TX850w I have in here with huge fan on the bottom seems to be partially blocked by that cowl. They put the same thing on the CPU cooler over the Pentium D in my eMachines and I have yet to figure the reasoning behind it, except to direct the airflow out of the side vent instead of inside the case. Seems it would be better without it and allowing better circulation inside the case, but what do I know, I'm no engineer. In the case of the eMachines, it is a mini tower, and dummy me didn't opt for a Modular PSU, so I have a bunch of excess wires crammed in there to further impede the airflow. Oddly enough it stays pretty cool all things considered (Had thought about moving everything into a bigger box). With the Gateway, I have more room, which is nice. I didn't know there was a front fan in there, unless you added one. Hadn't thought about using server fans. I liked the size of the fans they have in here, but have never been happy with the OEM stuff anyway. I have done all I can do with the emachines and squeezed all the performance I could get out it and it does quite well, until I get back on this thing. This Gateway is my new Work in Progress. Unlike the eMachines, I won't be as quick on jumping in with processor upgrade though.

 

[Guest]

The Ultra X4 vents air out the rear of the power supply.

Also the server grade fan I have installed in place of the factory fan in the rear, vents the air to the outside instead of sucking the air in.

The CPU cooler sucks air from the side vent, so the Cowl is there to pretty much make sure that fresh air from the outside gets to the processor.

The server grade fan I use is thicker than the factory fan, thereby leaving less room between the fan and the CPU Cooler & Cowl. The front 80mm fan I added myself and the Ultra X4 PSU came with a Cable with a molex connection on one end and two fan connectors on the other end so I could supply full power to the fans.

The front fan I have sucking air into the system. I also have a fan mounted sideways, behind the hot swap bay blowing air directly on the memory to help keep it cool. The fan blowing on the memory is plugged into one of the motherboard fan headers.

I make sure I use the most recent drivers for the system including the most recent Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver as it's now called.

When it comes to fans, I never liked sleeve bearings as they tend to gum up and when that happens, you get more heat then you are pumping out and the fans end up failing on you. Server grade fans with ball bearings are designed to handle higher volumes of air flow than a comparable cheap OEM fan.

 

[coastie65]

I have got the Northbridge down to 73C-76C at idle, by disabling that so called Smart Fan ( not all that noisy ). Have order another case fan that is rated at 75.6 cfm. Also looking at a copper heatsink / fan assembly for the Northbridge itself. Did go in and pull the heatsink over that thing and cleaned the crap off and apply some Arctic Silver 5. Hopefully I can get it down to 60C or lower at idle.

 

[Guest]

Today is a might bit cool and damp out.

My temps are as follows.

TMPIN0 70 °C (158 °F) North Bridge
TMPIN1 37 °C (98 °F)
TMPIN2 21 °C (69 °F)

Core #0 36 °C (96 °F)
Core #1 37 °C (98 °F)
Core #2 37 °C (98 °F)
Core #3 33 °C (91 °F)

Radeon HD 5770 GPU Core 50 °C (122 °F)

Trying to keep temps down, I've currently got only three drives in my system with the others being used as externals.

Seagate drive 42 °C (107 °F)
WD 320 GB 42 °C (107 °F)
WD 1 TB Caviar Black 46 °C (114 °F)

Once I can afford to get a new case and some serious liquid cooling, I really hope to get the temps down. 😀

Almost forgot to add, these temps are with watching videos and doing other stuff on my system.
Damm ah heck is a bit noisy, but not as noisy as it used to be. I've even got the entire front panel off of it now and it even looks better for it! 😛

 

[coastie65]

I have the SEagate Barracuda 750 GB that can in here and added the WD 1 TB Caviar Black in the toaster. Your temps look good, but like the general consensus, they can never be cool enough. I fond a Northbridge cooler from CoolerMaster at NewEgg. It was a combo Copper heatsink and fan that I ordered. I'll take a look at it. For $7, nothing ventured nothing gained. The temps are stable no matter the load. After disabling Smart Fan, I don't find it particularly noisy. The new 75.6 cfm case fan should help some as the OEM stuff usually leaves a bit to be desired anyway. I didn't get all that crap off the Northbridge when I was in there, so I ordered some Arctic Silver cleaner. Had a member over at PCWorld who took both side covers off his case. Your temps are a bit cooler than mine by about 4 or 5 degrees C. If I was still working, I'd remove the right side cover and take it to work with me and punch some louvers in it. At least I got that NB temp down as I was not ready to replace the MOBO. The ambient temperature where this thing sits gets up to around 80F as well, which doesn't help.

 

[Guest]

-
Since I installed the Ultra X4, I have done some more modifications.

Much as I dislike the Corsair H50 Liquid Cooler because I consider it to be for beginners, I purchased one to use temporarily for $49.00 until I can afford to do some serious Liquid cooling.

I mounted the radiator inside the case using adapter card screws (#6 x 32 x ¼") outside the case to hold it in place. Then on the inside on the case, instead of using the fan that came with the unit, I used one of my server fans with (#6 x 32 x 2") screws to hold it in place. Had to use some thick plastic washers cause the screws were ¼" too long.

For the CPU cooler/pump I didn't need to remove the motherboard at all. Instead I removed the old cooler and cleaned the old goop off, Assembled the hold down assembly and checked to see how it would fit. It attached directly to the existing mounting hardware in the motherboard. I just had to insert a 2mm plastic washer under the head of each screw before attaching it. I then applied new Arctic Silver to the processor before attaching the new cooler and tightening the screws.

The fan now sucks the air into the system at a high rate.
The front fan I reversed it so the air now blows out the front.

I then checked the temps using HWMonitor 1.16 64-Bit after which I took the Corsair fan and using thin cable ties, attached it to the top edge of the side vent on the outside of the case. I cut a hole just big enough for the wire connector to fit through (under the fan) so I could plug it in. This fan sucks the air out also while the bottom of the vent is left open for the video card so it has a source of fresh air.

As to the HD5770, I went into the ATI Catalyst and unlocked the card (making note of the OC'd settings first) then manually overrode the fan settings to 80% so as to keep the video card GPU to a reasonable level. If need be, I can crank it up some more.

I also removed the front panel off the case and I'm only using one hard drive in the front Hot-Swap bay for the moment cause I find that the current setup raises the temp of the front bay drives if they are both in the bay. I can just as easily use them externally using SATA or USB.

I'm currently looking at the Corsair CC800DW Obsidian 800D case as it has features that I like for cooling whether it be liquid or air, especially top vents which allow for three fans or better yet, a triple radiator for cooling.

Another case that I'm partial to is the Canyon 695

Although I have given thought for the last few years to setting up a rack mount system. This last option would allow me to go all out with setting up everything in my basement where it is cool year round and I'd be able to setup a full server with networking equipment and anything else I need including video surveillance for security which is another thing I've been giving though to in recent years.

 

[coastie65]

I'm glad you gave me that link to HWMonitor. Had you not, this thing in all likelyhood would have fried. Looks like you have a lot on your bucket list. I am thinking of removing the shroud from the CPU fan and installing a Fan in the cover using part of the vent to pull air into the case. Shouldn't be too big of a deal. I am familiar with the Corsair case which is nice. I'm not familiar with the Canyon. I put the WD in the hot swap bay. Thinking about loading Win7 on it and have a dual boot. I have two OEM copies of XP ( Home w/ SP3 and MCE 2005 w/ SP2b ). Would be a waste to put it on this 64 bit system though. That hot swap bay is one of the things I like about this rig. Nothing else really stands out though except for the hidden card reader which is a bit sticky and the other hidden thing ( Headphone & Mic Jacks + Firewire port ). Heck, I got the thing as a refurb for $650, so I can't complain I guess. I just got Deus Ex the complete early releases, and they installed fine and play. The graphics aren't all that good. I still have the ati HD 4850 1 Gb card that came in here. Been giving some thought to the 5770 though. We have a couple of members at PCWorld who have set up rack mount stuff. Two have turned old Full sized PC's into servers. The basement would definitely be cooler for sure.

 

[coastie65]

This just thought, but here goes. That square gasket looking thing on the bottom of the heat sink over the Northbridge is an adhesive pad to stick the thing to the MOBO. From what I saw, it may prevent the heatsink from making good contact with the Northbridge. I think the latches may be sufficient to hold it, but I'm not sure if by removing that thing will put that heat sink down on those little Diode looking things ( I don't think that would be such a hot idea ). If it doesn't, it would allow for better contact between the Northbridge and Heat sink.